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Male guinea pigs sought for fat tests
EU seeks ideas to spend 197m euros
CIAA defends food claims
Cadbury packs the ‘solution to pollution’
Crisps take to plastic
See the light
Research
Male guinea pigs sought for fat
tests
UK-based food researcher Rowett
Research Institute is looking for 60 non-smoking men prepared to consume
capsules of natural dairy fats and fish oils to test their beneficial
effects.
Study leader Dr Lynda Williams said
“These so-called ‘friendly’ fats have been linked to helping promote
weight loss and prevent heart disease, but the mechanisms are not clear.
“We will assess our volunteers’
cardiovascular fitness and also look at their body composition. We are
also interested in how their bodies deal with fat, and so we will be
asking them to eat a high-fat breakfast, although it’s unlikely to be a
traditional fry-up!” she said.
To put your name forward contact Dr
Fotini Tsofliou on +44 (0)77807 11551 or email f.tsofliou@rowett.ac.uk,
or speak to Williams on +44 (0)1224 716682.
EU seeks
ideas to spend 197m euros
The European Commission has
published two calls for proposals to address food quality and safety under
the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The budget is 197m euros. The areas
covered are:
-
Total food chain
-
Epidemiology of food related
diseases and allergies
-
Impact of food on health
-
Traceability processes along
the production chain
-
Methods of analysis, detection
and control
-
Safer and environmentally
friendly production methods and technologies and healthier foodstuffs
-
Impact of animal feed on human
health
-
Environmental health risks
-
Specific support actions
The calls request the use of
integrated projects, networks of excellence, specific targeted research
projects, coordinated actions and specific support actions. Proposers
should consult the full call texts before applying. The deadlines are 5
February 2004 (FP6-2003-FOOD-2-A) and 29 September 2004
(FP6-2003-FOOD-2-B). Click here
for the full text.
Nutrition
CIAA defends food claims
Food processors want to be free to
research and develop novel foods and to communicate their benefits to
consumers, says their European industry spokesman, the CIAA.
The CIAA recently asked six
companies, Kellogg's, Nestlé, Orafti, Queijo Saloio, So Good
International and Unilever, to give an insight into the process to
Commission officials, MEPs, member states and the public. The meeting
precedes a new EU regulatory framework to prevent false or misleading
claims about foodstuffs.
CIAA President Jean Martin said the
new framework “must give industry the flexibility and incentive to
continue to invest in research and development, to develop products with a
scientifically substantiated health benefit and to inform consumers
accordingly."
The current “idea to label”
process is as follows:
-
research linking a food or a
food ingredient with a nutrition or health benefit
-
peer review of scientific
findings
-
technological innovation to
incorporate the ingredient into a food product, while preserving
quality and benefit
-
endorsement of scientific
substantiation by public authorities
-
co-operation with professional
health organisations
-
research about consumer
understanding
-
communication to the consumer
The companies asked for the present
divergent national regulations to be harmonised, and for them to “retain
the flexibility to translate scientific findings into a meaningful message
for the consumer”.
Innovation
Cadbury packs the ‘solution to
pollution’
Cadbury Schweppes is test-packaging
a maize-based bioplastic material developed in Australia with its Milk
Tray chocolates. If successful it may expand its use to other products.
The material biodegrades into water
and carbon dioxide with the addition of water, but will also decompose in
garden and municipal compost heaps, worm farms and landfills or burn in
incinerators.
This is the first commercial use of
the material, which is owned by Plantic Technologies, a spin-off of
Australia’s federally-funded Cooperative Research Centre for
International Food Manufacturer and Packaging Science. It appears to be a
competitor to Cargill Dow’s NatureWorks PLA, which is also based on corn
starch.
Crisps take
to plastic
US-based Graham Packaging is making
its first entry into the salty snack-food market as supplier of a
high-density polyethylene (HDPE) rigid container from a new plant in
Mexicali, Mexico. It will house Frito-Lay’s new Lay’s Stax potato
crisps.
High-speed extrusion blow-moulding
lines are turning out two sizes of the four-layer container, which also
features a high-quality finish, a foil-induction seal, and a snap-on,
linear low-density polyethylene lid from Magenta of Chicago.
New
product
See the light
Japanese optics firm Nikon
Instruments has brought out a new Universal epi-fluorescence reflected
light illuminator module for Nikon Eclipse upright microscope models.
It has a high precision turret to
hold up to six interchangeable reflector blocks for multiple fluorescence
illumination wavelengths as well as standard reflected light techniques,
such as reflected brightfield, darkfield, and DIC. This allows the user to
choose a variety of probes at different wavelengths on multiple stained
specimens. A proprietary optional excitation balancer allows the user to
change the excitation wavelength continuously and decide which colour to
emphasise during imaging of multi-stained samples.
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